Methods and systems for presenting direction-specific media assets

ABSTRACT

Methods and systems are described herein for a media guidance application that coordinates the display of direction-specific media assets on a display device associated with a particular direction. For example, the media guidance application may receive data (e.g., stored when an image or video was created) that indicates a direction a content capture device was facing when the image or video was captured. Based on that data, the media guidance application may select a particular display device (e.g., a computer, tablet, television, etc.) that corresponds to the direction (e.g., from the point of view of a user) on which to present the media asset.

BACKGROUND

As content capture devices (e.g., cameras) are increasingly incorporatedinto other types of mobile devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets, etc.),the frequency at which users capture images and/or videos alsoincreases. Furthermore, as users acquire more and more images and/orvideos, users increasingly obtain display devices capable of presentingthe images and/or videos. As the number of display devices and thenumber of images and/or videos for display on those display devicespresents an exponential amount of combinations, users may need guidancefor how to arrange and/or present the media assets.

SUMMARY

Accordingly, methods and systems are described herein for a mediaguidance application that coordinates the display of direction-specificmedia assets on a display device associated with a particular direction.For example, the media guidance application may receive data (e.g.,stored when an image or video was created) that indicates a direction acontent capture device was facing when the image or video was captured.Based on that data, the media guidance application may select aparticular display device (e.g., a computer, tablet, television, etc.)that corresponds to the direction (e.g., from the point of view of auser) on which to present the media asset. By selecting a display devicecorresponding to the direction the content capture device was facing,the media guidance application may recreate environments, scenes,nostalgic moments, etc. for the enjoyment of the user.

For example, while on vacation, a user may capture multiple images or apanoramic image from a particular location. Upon returning home, theuser may wish to recreate the location through presentation of thecaptured images. Accordingly, a media guidance application may selectparticular images to appear on a particular display device based onwhether or not the selected image is associated with the same direction(e.g., north, south, east, west, etc.) as the display device from theviewpoint of the user. For example, if a user captured an image of alandmark that was directly north of the user at a first location (e.g.,the site of the vacation), the media guidance application may select adisplay device (e.g., a television) for presenting the image if thedisplay device is directly north (e.g., as determined based on a usersetting) of the user at the second location (e.g., the home of a user).

In some aspects, the media guidance application may receive a firstmedia asset, captured by a content capture device, associated with afirst location. The media guidance application may then determine afirst direction that the content capture device faced when capturing thefirst media asset at the first location. The media guidance applicationmay also receive a user input requesting to generate a display of mediaassets associated with the first location at a second location anddetect a first display device associated with a first direction at thesecond location. The media guidance application may then generate adisplay of the first media asset on the first display device in responseto determining that the first direction at the first locationcorresponds to the first direction at the second location.

In some aspects, the media guidance application may also determine asecond direction that the content capture device faced when capturing asecond media asset at the first location, and in response to the userinput, detect a second display device associated with a second directionat the second location. The media guidance application may then generatea display of the second media asset on the second display device,simultaneously with the display of the first media asset on the firstdisplay device, in response to determining that the second direction atthe first location corresponds to a second direction at the secondlocation. For example, the media guidance application may directmultiple user devices (e.g., corresponding to different direction fromthe viewpoint of the user) to present multiple media assetscorresponding to different directions. Accordingly, the media guidanceapplication may employ multiple media assets to replicate a priorlocation.

In some aspects, the media guidance application may receive dataassociated with the first media asset, in which the data indicates thatthe content capture device faced the first direction when capturing thefirst media asset at the first location. The direction may correspond toa frame of reference that is stationary relative to Earth's magneticpoles (e.g., aligned to point to Earth's magnetic poles).

In some aspects, the media guidance application may incorporate and/oraccess an accelerometer in order to differentiate directions. Forexample, a user device incorporating a display screen and upon which themedia guidance application is implemented may receive directionalinformation as the user device changes direction. In response todetecting that the user device is changing directions, the mediaguidance application may modify media assets on the user device tocorrespond to the current direction.

In some aspects, the media guidance application may also select mediaassets for presentation based on a first time at which the contentcapture device captured the first media asset at the first location. Forexample, the media guidance application may select media assets forpresentation in response to determining that the media asset wascaptured at a time, date, season, etc. corresponding to the currenttime, date, season, etc.

In some aspects, the media guidance application may present one or moreframes (e.g., corresponding to a particular direction) of a video (e.g.,including frames corresponding to multiple directions). For example, themedia guidance application may determine a direction that the contentcapture device faced when capturing each frame of the first media asset.The media guidance application may then select only frames associatedwith a direction that corresponds to a particular display device forpresentation on that display device.

It should be noted, the systems and/or methods described above may beapplied to, or used in accordance with, other systems, methods and/orapparatuses.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects and advantages of the disclosure will beapparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencecharacters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative media guidance application for presentingmedia assets in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 2 shows another illustrative media guidance application forpresenting media assets in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment device inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 5 is an illustrative representation of a user capturing images ofvarious objects associated with different directions at a first locationin accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 6 is an illustrative representation of a presentation of images ofvarious objects associated with different directions at a first locationas displayed on display devices associated with the different directionsat a second location in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 7 is an illustrative representation of a presentation of a seriesof images of various objects associated with different directions at afirst location as a display device is associated with differentdirections at a second location in accordance with some embodiments ofthe disclosure;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in generating adisplay of a direction-specific media asset in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure; and

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in generating adisplay of a media asset based on direction information associated withthe specific media asset in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Methods and systems are described herein for a media guidanceapplication that coordinates the display of direction-specific mediaassets on a display device associated with a particular direction. Forexample, the media guidance application may receive data (e.g., storedwhen an image or video was created) that indicates a direction a contentcapture device was facing when the image or video was captured. Based onthat data, the media guidance application may select a particulardisplay device (e.g., a computer, tablet, television, etc.) thatcorresponds to the direction (e.g., from the point of view of a user) onwhich to present the media asset. By selecting a display devicecorresponding to the direction the content capture device was facing,the media guidance application may recreate environments, scenes,nostalgic moments, etc. for the enjoyment of the user.

As referred to herein, a “media guidance application” refers to anapplication that allows users to efficiently navigate content selectionsand easily identify and present content that they may desire. In somecases, a media guidance application may also be referred to herein as aninteractive media guidance application or, sometimes, a media guidanceapplication or a guidance application.

Interactive media guidance applications may take various forms dependingon the content for which they provide guidance. One typical type ofmedia guidance application is an interactive television program guide.Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to aselectronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that,among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many typesof content or media assets. Interactive media guidance applications maygenerate graphical user interface screens that enable a user to navigateamong, locate and select content. As referred to herein, the terms“media asset” and “content” should be understood to mean anelectronically consumable user asset, such as television programming, aswell as pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (as in video-on-demand(VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g., streaming content, downloadablecontent, Webcasts, etc.), video clips, audio, content information,pictures, rotating images, documents, playlists, websites, articles,books, electronic books, blogs, advertisements, chat sessions, socialmedia, applications, games, and/or any other media or multimedia and/orcombination of the same. Guidance applications also allow users tonavigate among and locate content. As referred to herein, the term“multimedia” should be understood to mean content that utilizes at leasttwo different content forms described above, for example, text, audio,images, video, or interactivity content forms. Content may be recorded,played, displayed or accessed by user equipment devices, but can also bepart of a live performance.

As referred to herein, media assets and display devices may beassociated with a direction. As referred to herein a “direction,” asassociated with a media asset, refers to a deviation, expressed as anangle, from the course of an imaginary line connecting the currentposition of a user to true or magnetic north to a course a contentcapture device was facing when a media asset was captured. For example,if a camera was pointed “North” when the camera captured a picture, thedirection associated with the picture would be “North.” Likewise, if avideo camera was facing “South” when a frame of a video was captured,the frame of the video would be associated with a direction of “South.”

As referred to herein a “direction,” as associated with a displaydevice, refers to a deviation, expressed as an angle, from the course ofan imaginary line connecting the current position of a user to true ormagnetic north to a course a display device is facing when presenting amedia asset to a user and the user. For example, if a television isfacing the user and is directly “North” of the user when presenting amedia asset on-screen, the direction associated with the televisionwould be “North.” In another example, if a tablet is facing the user andis directly “South” of the user, the tablet would be associated with adirection of “South.”

It should be noted that a direction associated with a display device mayvary depending on the current position and way (e.g., with respect to auser) that a display device is facing. For example, a display deviceinitially located directly “North” of a user may initially be associatedwith a direction of “North.” The direction associated with the displaydevice may change if the position of the display device and the way thatthe display device faces are changed. For example, if the display deviceis to move to a position directly “South” of the user, while the displaydevice still faces the user, the display device may now be associatedwith a direction of “South.”

It should be noted that a direction may also be expressed in any othersuitable format. For example, additionally or alternatively, a directionmay be expressed as a degree (e.g., in a polar coordinate system). Inanother example, a direction may be expressed as any one of three anglesthat a line in space makes with the three positive directions (e.g.,from a reference point) of coordinate axes (e.g., usually designated asα, β, and γ with respect to the x-, y-, and z-axes). For example, insome embodiments “directions” associated with media assets and/ordisplay device may be associated with coordinates relative to a userand/or one or more fixed points.

For example, while atop the Empire State Building, a user may capturepanoramic media assets. In addition, the user may capture media assetsin directions other than standard compass bearings (e.g., “North,”“Southwest,” etc.). For example, a user may capture an image lookingdirectly down from the top of the building or at any other angle. Insome embodiments, the media guidance application may process these mediaassets such that a display device (e.g., facing directly up towards theceiling, sky, etc.) presents corresponding media assets (e.g., mediaassets captured while a content capture device was facing directly downtowards the ground, floor, etc.).

It should be noted that, in some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may determine the position of a display device and whetheror not a display device faces a user. For example, the device upon whichthe media guidance application is implemented may incorporate and/orhave access to a Global Positioning System (“GPS”) module or componentfor determining the position of a user, a display device, and/or contentcapture device as well as the way the user, display device, and/orcontent capture device faces. For example, an accelerometer, compass,gyroscope, etc. incorporated into a display device may indicate thecurrent direction that a display faces. Additionally or alternatively,the media guidance application may incorporate and/or have access to oneor more devices or modules capable of detecting motion and/or sensingorientation.

For example, in order to determine a position of a user, a displaydevice, and/or content capture device, the media guidance applicationmay receive data describing (e.g., providing coordinates of) theposition of the user. In order to determine the way the user, displaydevice, and/or content capture device faces, the media guidanceapplication may receive data describing the position (e.g., providingcoordinates of) a first point associated with one side of the user,display device, and/or content capture device (e.g., the side featuringthe eyes of a user, display screen, etc.) and compare that position to asecond point associated with the other side of the user (e.g., the sidefeaturing the back of the head of a user, side opposite the displayscreen, etc.). In some embodiments, the data describing the positionand/or direction may be stored with the media asset and/or may be storedremotely from the media asset (e.g., in a look-up table databaseassociated with positions and directions of media assets).

Alternatively or additionally, the media guidance application may alsoreceive a user setting indicating a position of a user, a displaydevice, and/or content capture device as well as the way the user,display device, and/or content capture device faces. For example, themedia guidance application may generate an interface into which a usermay enter information necessary for presenting direction-specific mediaassets.

Based on these and other suitable methods, the media guidanceapplication may also identify display devices that are within aparticular proximity to a user (e.g., a user's room or household, lineof sight, etc.). For example, in response to a single user request togenerate direction-specific media assets, the media guidance applicationmay automatically determine one or more display devices upon which togenerate a display of media assets. For example, in response to a singlerequest, the media guidance application may generate for displaydirection-specific media assets on all display devices connected to ahome network associated with the user.

The media guidance application may also determine which devices withinthe proximity face the user. For example, even though two devices arewithin a particular proximity, if only one of the devices faces the user(e.g., indicative of the user being able to view media assets presentedon the device), the media guidance application may only generate adisplay of a media asset on the device facing the user. For example, auser may request that the media guidance application generate a displayof media assets associated with a view from a first location (e.g., atopthe Eiffel Tower) at a second location (e.g., a user's bedroom). Themedia guidance application may locate several display devices on thehome network of the user not facing the user (e.g., devices in theliving room, kitchen, etc.), but because the display devices do not facea user (e.g., within a particular threshold), the media guidanceapplication may not generate a display of media assets on those devices.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may also presentaudio or other types of media assets as well. For example, a contentcapture device may capture sounds, smells, etc. associated with a firstlocation and re-create those sounds, smells, etc. at the secondlocation. For example, the media guidance application may recreate aparticular location and supplement video and/or images displayed withsounds and smells associated with the location.

Additionally or alternatively, the media guidance application may obtainmedia assets that are not created by the user (e.g., created using acontent capture device associated with the user). For example, the mediaguidance application may search for available media assets on one ormore remote or local databases. For example, the media guidanceapplication may retrieve third party media assets (e.g., user-generatedcontent such as images posted by another user to a social network of auser) associated with a particular location.

The media guidance application may also identify the location and/ordirections associated with third party media assets. In someembodiments, the media guidance application (or the user device uponwhich the media guidance application is implemented) may include and/orhave access to one or more object-recognition modules. Anobject-recognition module may use edge detection, pattern recognition,including, but not limited to, self-learning systems (e.g., neuralnetworks), optical character recognition, on-line character recognition(including, but not limited to, dynamic character recognition, real-timecharacter recognition, intelligent character recognition), and/or anyother suitable technique or method to identify a direction associatedwith a media asset. For example, the media guidance application mayreceive a media asset in the form of a video (e.g., an audio/videorecording of a user). The video may include a series of frames. For eachframe of the video, the media guidance application may use anobject-recognition module to identify objects in the frame as well asthe direction a content capture device was facing when the video wastaken.

In some embodiments, the content-recognition module or algorithm mayalso include audio analysis and speech recognition techniques,including, but not limited to, Hidden Markov Models, dynamic timewarping, and/or neural networks (as described above) to process audiodata and/or translate spoken words into text in order to identifyobjects and/or directions associated with the objects.

In addition, the media guidance application may use multiple types ofoptical character recognition and/or fuzzy logic; for example, whenanalyzing subtitles (e.g., in order to determine the content of themedia asset) or comparing multiple data fields (e.g., as contained indatabases described herein). Using fuzzy logic, the system may determinetwo fields and/or values to be identical even though the substance ofthe data field or value (e.g., two different spellings) is notidentical. In some embodiments, the system may analyze particular datafields of a database for particular values or text. Furthermore, thedata fields could contain values (e.g., the data fields could beexpressed in binary or any other suitable code or programming language)other than human-readable text.

As referred to herein, the phrase “user equipment device,” “userequipment,” “user device,” “electronic device,” “electronic equipment,”“media equipment device,” or “media device” should be understood to meanany device for accessing the content described above, such as atelevision, a Smart TV, a set-top box, an integrated receiver decoder(IRD) for handling satellite television, a digital storage device, adigital media receiver (DMR), a digital media adapter (DMA), a streamingmedia device, a DVD player, a DVD recorder, a connected DVD, a localmedia server, a BLU-RAY player, a BLU-RAY recorder, a personal computer(PC), a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a WebTV box, a personalcomputer television (PC/TV), a PC media server, a PC media center, ahand-held computer, a stationary telephone, a personal digital assistant(PDA), a mobile telephone, a portable video player, a portable musicplayer, a portable gaming machine, a smart phone, or any othertelevision equipment, computing equipment, or wireless device, and/orcombination of the same. In some embodiments, the user equipment devicemay have a front facing screen and a rear facing screen, multiple frontscreens, or multiple angled screens.

In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facingcamera and/or a rear facing camera. Additionally or alternatively, anyof the user devices described herein may include a display (e.g., forpresenting direction-specific media assets) and a content capture device(e.g., for creating direction-specific media assets). For example,content capture devices, such as camcorders, digital cameras with videomode, audio recorders, mobile phones, and handheld computing devices,may be incorporated into and/or accessible by any of the user devicesdescribed herein.

On these user equipment devices, users may be able to navigate among andlocate the same content available through a television. Consequently,media guidance may be available on these devices, as well. The guidanceprovided may be for content available only through a television, forcontent available only through one or more of other types of userequipment devices, or for content available both through a televisionand one or more of the other types of user equipment devices. The mediaguidance applications may be provided as on-line applications (i.e.,provided on a web-site), or as stand-alone applications or clients onuser equipment devices. Various devices and platforms that may implementmedia guidance applications are described in more detail below.

One of the functions of the media guidance application is to providemedia guidance data to users. As referred to herein, the phrase, “mediaguidance data” or “guidance data” should be understood to mean any datarelated to content, such as media listings, media-related information(e.g., broadcast times, broadcast channels, titles, descriptions,ratings information (e.g., parental control ratings, critic's ratings,etc.), genre or category information, actor information, logo data forbroadcasters' or providers' logos, etc.), media format (e.g., standarddefinition, high definition, 3D, etc.), advertisement information (e.g.,text, images, media clips, etc.), on-demand information, blogs,websites, and any other type of guidance data that is helpful for a userto navigate among and locate desired content selections.

FIGS. 1-2 show illustrative display screens that may be used to providemedia guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS. 1-2 and 6-7 maybe implemented on any suitable user equipment device or platform. Whilethe displays of FIGS. 1-2 and 6-7 are illustrated as full screendisplays, they may also be fully or partially overlaid over contentbeing displayed. A user may indicate a desire to access contentinformation by selecting a selectable option provided in a displayscreen (e.g., a menu option, a listings option, an icon, a hyperlink,etc.) or pressing a dedicated button (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remotecontrol or other user input interface or device. In response to theuser's indication, the media guidance application may provide a displayscreen with media guidance data organized in one of several ways, suchas by time and channel in a grid, by time, by channel, by source, bycontent type, by category (e.g., movies, sports, news, children, orother categories of programming), or other predefined, user-defined, orother organization criteria. The organization of the media guidance datais determined by guidance application data. As referred to herein, thephrase, “guidance application data” should be understood to mean dataused in operating the guidance application, such as program information,guidance application settings, user preferences, or user profileinformation.

FIG. 1 shows illustrative grid program listings display 100 arranged bytime and channel that also enables access to different types of contentin a single display. Display 100 may include grid 102 with: (1) a columnof channel/content type identifiers 104, where each channel/content typeidentifier (which is a cell in the column) identifies a differentchannel or content type available; and (2) a row of time identifiers106, where each time identifier (which is a cell in the row) identifiesa time block of programming. Grid 102 also includes cells of programlistings, such as program listing 108, where each listing provides thetitle of the program provided on the listing's associated channel andtime. With a user input device, a user can select program listings bymoving highlight region 110. Information relating to the program listingselected by highlight region 110 may be provided in program informationregion 112. Region 112 may include, for example, the program title, theprogram description, the time the program is provided (if applicable),the channel the program is on (if applicable), the program's rating, andother desired information.

In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., contentthat is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipmentdevices at a predetermined time and is provided according to aschedule), the media guidance application also provides access tonon-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipmentdevice at any time and is not provided according to a schedule).Non-linear programming may include content from different contentsources including on-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g.,streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content(e.g., content stored on any user equipment device described above orother storage device), or other time-independent content. On-demandcontent may include movies or any other content provided by a particularcontent provider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “CurbYour Enthusiasm”). HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time WarnerCompany L.P. et al. and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM aretrademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content mayinclude web events, such as a chat session or Webcast, or contentavailable on-demand as streaming content or downloadable content throughan Internet web site or other Internet access (e.g. FTP).

Grid 102 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programmingincluding on-demand listing 114, recorded content listing 116, andInternet content listing 118. A display combining media guidance datafor content from different types of content sources is sometimesreferred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of thetypes of media guidance data that may be displayed that are differentthan display 100 may be based on user selection or guidance applicationdefinition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings,only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings114, 116, and 118 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayedin grid 102 to indicate that selection of these listings may provideaccess to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recorded listings,or Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments, listings forthese content types may be included directly in grid 102. Additionalmedia guidance data may be displayed in response to the user selectingone of the navigational icons 120. (Pressing an arrow key on a userinput device may affect the display in a similar manner as selectingnavigational icons 120.)

Display 100 may also include video region 122, advertisement 124, andoptions region 126. Video region 122 may allow the user to view and/orpreview programs that are currently available, will be available, orwere available to the user. The content of video region 122 maycorrespond to, or be independent from, one of the listings displayed ingrid 102. Grid displays including a video region are sometimes referredto as picture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and theirfunctionalities are described in greater detail in Satterfield et al.U.S. Pat. No. 6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat.No. 6,239,794, issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated byreference herein in their entireties. PIG displays may be included inother media guidance application display screens of the embodimentsdescribed herein.

Advertisement 124 may provide an advertisement for content that,depending on a viewer's access rights (e.g., for subscriptionprogramming), is currently available for viewing, will be available forviewing in the future, or may never become available for viewing, andmay correspond to or be unrelated to one or more of the content listingsin grid 102. Advertisement 124 may also be for products or servicesrelated or unrelated to the content displayed in grid 102. Advertisement124 may be selectable and provide further information about content,provide information about a product or a service, enable purchasing ofcontent, a product, or a service, provide content relating to theadvertisement, etc. Advertisement 124 may be targeted based on a user'sprofile/preferences, monitored user activity, the type of displayprovided, or on other suitable targeted advertisement bases.

While advertisement 124 is shown as rectangular or banner shaped,advertisements may be provided in any suitable size, shape, and locationin a guidance application display. For example, advertisement 124 may beprovided as a rectangular shape that is horizontally adjacent to grid102. This is sometimes referred to as a panel advertisement. Inaddition, advertisements may be overlaid over content or a guidanceapplication display or embedded within a display. Advertisements mayalso include text, images, rotating images, video clips, or other typesof content described above. Advertisements may be stored in a userequipment device having a guidance application, in a database connectedto the user equipment, in a remote location (including streaming mediaservers), or on other storage means, or a combination of theselocations. Providing advertisements in a media guidance application isdiscussed in greater detail in, for example, Knudson et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2003/0110499, filed Jan. 17, 2003; Ward, IIIet al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,756,997, issued Jun. 29, 2004; and Schein et al.U.S. Pat. No. 6,388,714, issued May 14, 2002, which are herebyincorporated by reference herein in their entireties. It will beappreciated that advertisements may be included in other media guidanceapplication display screens of the embodiments described herein.

Options region 126 may allow the user to access different types ofcontent, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidanceapplication features. Options region 126 may be part of display 100 (andother display screens described herein), or may be invoked by a user byselecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignablebutton on a user input device. The selectable options within optionsregion 126 may concern features related to program listings in grid 102or may include options available from a main menu display. Featuresrelated to program listings may include searching for other air times orways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling seriesrecording of a program, setting program and/or channel as a favorite,purchasing a program, or other features. Options available from a mainmenu display may include search options, VOD options, parental controloptions, Internet options, cloud-based options, device synchronizationoptions, second screen device options, options to access various typesof media guidance data displays, options to subscribe to a premiumservice, options to edit a user's profile, options to access a browseoverlay, or other options.

The media guidance application may be personalized based on a user'spreferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user tocustomize displays and features to create a personalized “experience”with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may becreated by allowing a user to input these customizations and/or by themedia guidance application monitoring user activity to determine varioususer preferences. Users may access their personalized guidanceapplication by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to theguidance application. Customization of the media guidance applicationmay be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations mayinclude varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays,font size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g.,only HDTV or only 3D programming, user-specified broadcast channelsbased on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display ofchannels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g.,recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality,etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internetcontent (e.g., presentation of social media content, e-mail,electronically delivered articles, etc.) and other desiredcustomizations.

The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profileinformation or may automatically compile user profile information. Themedia guidance application may, for example, monitor the content theuser accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with theguidance application. Additionally, the media guidance application mayobtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to aparticular user (e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the useraccesses, such as www.allrovi.com, from other media guidanceapplications the user accesses, from other interactive applications theuser accesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.),and/or obtain information about the user from other sources that themedia guidance application may access. As a result, a user can beprovided with a unified guidance application experience across theuser's different user equipment devices. This type of user experience isdescribed in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 4. Additionalpersonalized media guidance application features are described ingreater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005, Boyer et al., U.S. Pat. No.7,165,098, issued Jan. 16, 2007, and Ellis et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2002/0174430, filed Feb. 21, 2002, which arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown inFIG. 2. Video mosaic display 200 includes selectable options 202 forcontent information organized based on content type, genre, and/or otherorganization criteria. In display 200, television listings option 204 isselected, thus providing listings 206, 208, 210, and 212 as broadcastprogram listings. In display 200 the listings may provide graphicalimages including cover art, still images from the content, video clippreviews, live video from the content, or other types of content thatindicate to a user the content being described by the media guidancedata in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also beaccompanied by text to provide further information about the contentassociated with the listing. For example, listing 208 may include morethan one portion, including media portion 214 and text portion 216.Media portion 214 and/or text portion 216 may be selectable to viewcontent in full-screen or to view information related to the contentdisplayed in media portion 214 (e.g., to view listings for the channelthat the video is displayed on).

The listings in display 200 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 206 islarger than listings 208, 210, and 212), but if desired, all thelistings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes orgraphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user orto emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider orbased on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphicallyaccentuating content listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Dec. 29, 2005,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Users may access content and the media guidance application (and itsdisplay screens described above and below) from one or more of theiruser equipment devices. FIG. 3 shows a generalized embodiment ofillustrative user equipment device 300. More specific implementations ofuser equipment devices are discussed below in connection with FIG. 4.User equipment device 300 may receive content and data via input/output(hereinafter “I/O”) path 302. I/O path 302 may provide content (e.g.,broadcast programming, on-demand programming, Internet content, contentavailable over a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN),and/or other content) and data to control circuitry 304, which includesprocessing circuitry 306 and storage 308. Control circuitry 304 may beused to send and receive commands, requests, and other suitable datausing I/O path 302. I/O path 302 may connect control circuitry 304 (andspecifically processing circuitry 306) to one or more communicationspaths (described below). I/O functions may be provided by one or more ofthese communications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 3 toavoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Control circuitry 304 may be based on any suitable processing circuitrysuch as processing circuitry 306. As referred to herein, processingcircuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or moremicroprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments,processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separateprocessors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same typeof processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multipledifferent processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel Corei7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 executesinstructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e.,storage 308). Specifically, control circuitry 304 may be instructed bythe media guidance application to perform the functions discussed aboveand below. For example, the media guidance application may provideinstructions to control circuitry 304 to generate the media guidancedisplays. In some implementations, any action performed by controlcircuitry 304 may be based on instructions received from the mediaguidance application.

In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 304 may includecommunications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidanceapplication server or other networks or servers. The instructions forcarrying out the above mentioned functionality may be stored on theguidance application server. Communications circuitry may include acable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, adigital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card,or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or anyother suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involvethe Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths(which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 4). Inaddition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enablespeer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communicationof user equipment devices in locations remote from each other (describedin more detail below).

Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 308 thatis part of control circuitry 304. As referred to herein, the phrase“electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood tomean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, orfirmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives,optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD)recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders,digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal videorecorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gamingconsoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storagedevices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 308 may be used tostore various types of content described herein as well as mediaguidance information, described above, and guidance application data,described above. Nonvolatile memory may also be used (e.g., to launch aboot-up routine and other instructions). Cloud-based storage, describedin relation to FIG. 4, may be used to supplement storage 308 or insteadof storage 308.

Control circuitry 304 may include video generating circuitry and tuningcircuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, orany other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of suchcircuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog,or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided.Control circuitry 304 may also include scaler circuitry for upconvertingand downconverting content into the preferred output format of the userequipment 300. Circuitry 304 may also include digital-to-analogconverter circuitry and analog-to-digital converter circuitry forconverting between digital and analog signals. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may be used by the user equipment device to receive and todisplay, to play, or to record content. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. The circuitrydescribed herein, including for example, the tuning, video generating,encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, and analog/digitalcircuitry, may be implemented using software running on one or moregeneral purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tuners may beprovided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch and recordfunctions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tuner recording,etc.). If storage 308 is provided as a separate device from userequipment 300, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including multipletuners) may be associated with storage 308.

A user may send instructions to control circuitry 304 using user inputinterface 310. User input interface 310 may be any suitable userinterface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard,touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognitioninterface, or other user input interfaces. Display 312 may be providedas a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements of userequipment device 300. Display 312 may be one or more of a monitor, atelevision, a liquid crystal display (LCD) for a mobile device, or anyother suitable equipment for displaying visual images. In someembodiments, display 312 may be HDTV-capable. In some embodiments,display 312 may be a 3D display, and the interactive media guidanceapplication and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. A videocard or graphics card may generate the output to the display 312. Thevideo card may offer various functions such as accelerated rendering of3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or theability to connect multiple monitors. The video card may be anyprocessing circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry304. The video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 304.Speakers 314 may be provided as integrated with other elements of userequipment device 300 or may be stand-alone units. The audio component ofvideos and other content displayed on display 312 may be played throughspeakers 314. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributed to areceiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio via speakers314.

User device 300 may also include content capture component 316. Contentcapture component 316 may be any device suitable for creating and/orgenerating media assets. For example, content capture component 316 maybe a camcorder, digital camera, audio recorder, mobile phone, andhandheld computing device, or any other device capable of recordingand/or storing data.

The guidance application may be implemented using any suitablearchitecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone application whollyimplemented on user equipment device 300. In such an approach,instructions of the application are stored locally, and data for use bythe application is downloaded on a periodic basis (e.g., from anout-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, or using another suitableapproach). In some embodiments, the media guidance application is aclient-server based application. Data for use by a thick or thin clientimplemented on user equipment device 300 is retrieved on-demand byissuing requests to a server remote to the user equipment device 300. Inone example of a client-server based guidance application, controlcircuitry 304 runs a web browser that interprets web pages provided by aremote server.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is downloaded andinterpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (runby control circuitry 304). In some embodiments, the guidance applicationmay be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), received bycontrol circuitry 304 as part of a suitable feed, and interpreted by auser agent running on control circuitry 304. For example, the guidanceapplication may be an EBIF application. In some embodiments, theguidance application may be defined by a series of JAVA-based files thatare received and run by a local virtual machine or other suitablemiddleware executed by control circuitry 304. In some of suchembodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital mediaencoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example, encodedand transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio andvideo packets of a program.

User equipment device 300 of FIG. 3 can be implemented in system 400 ofFIG. 4 as user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404,wireless user communications device 406, or any other type of userequipment suitable for accessing content, such as a non-portable gamingmachine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to hereincollectively as user equipment or user equipment devices, and may besubstantially similar to user equipment devices described above. Userequipment devices, on which a media guidance application may beimplemented, may function as a standalone device or may be part of anetwork of devices. Various network configurations of devices may beimplemented and are discussed in more detail below.

A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system featuresdescribed above in connection with FIG. 3 may not be classified solelyas user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, or awireless user communications device 406. For example, user televisionequipment 402 may, like some user computer equipment 404, beInternet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content, while usercomputer equipment 404 may, like some television equipment 402, includea tuner allowing for access to television programming. The mediaguidance application may have the same layout on various different typesof user equipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of theuser equipment. For example, on user computer equipment 404, theguidance application may be provided as a web site accessed by a webbrowser. In another example, the guidance application may be scaled downfor wireless user communications devices 406.

In system 400, there is typically more than one of each type of userequipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 4 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may utilize morethan one type of user equipment device and also more than one of eachtype of user equipment device.

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user televisionequipment 402, user computer equipment 404, wireless user communicationsdevice 406) may be referred to as a “second screen device.” For example,a second screen device may supplement content presented on a first userequipment device. The content presented on the second screen device maybe any suitable content that supplements the content presented on thefirst device. In some embodiments, the second screen device provides aninterface for adjusting settings and display preferences of the firstdevice. In some embodiments, the second screen device is configured forinteracting with other second screen devices or for interacting with asocial network. The second screen device can be located in the same roomas the first device, a different room from the first device but in thesame house or building, or in a different building from the firstdevice.

The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent mediaguidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices.Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and programfavorites, programming preferences that the guidance applicationutilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences, andother desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channelas a favorite on, for example, the web site www.allrovi.com on theirpersonal computer at their office, the same channel would appear as afavorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipmentand user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, ifdesired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can changethe guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless ofwhether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device.In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user,as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.

The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network 414.Namely, user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, andwireless user communications device 406 are coupled to communicationsnetwork 414 via communications paths 408, 410, and 412, respectively.Communications network 414 may be one or more networks including theInternet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice or data network (e.g., a4G or LTE network), cable network, public switched telephone network, orother types of communications network or combinations of communicationsnetworks. Paths 408, 410, and 412 may separately or together include oneor more communications paths, such as, a satellite path, a fiber-opticpath, a cable path, a path that supports Internet communications (e.g.,IPTV), free-space connections (e.g., for broadcast or other wirelesssignals), or any other suitable wired or wireless communications path orcombination of such paths. Path 412 is drawn with dotted lines toindicate that in the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 4 it is awireless path and paths 408 and 410 are drawn as solid lines to indicatethey are wired paths (although these paths may be wireless paths, ifdesired). Communications with the user equipment devices may be providedby one or more of these communications paths, but are shown as a singlepath in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipmentdevices, these devices may communicate directly with each other viacommunication paths, such as those described above in connection withpaths 408, 410, and 412, as well as other short-range point-to-pointcommunication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wirelesspaths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or othershort-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is acertification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipmentdevices may also communicate with each other directly through anindirect path via communications network 414.

System 400 includes content source 416 and media guidance data source418 coupled to communications network 414 via communication paths 420and 422, respectively. Paths 420 and 422 may include any of thecommunication paths described above in connection with paths 408, 410,and 412. Communications with the content source 416 and media guidancedata source 418 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths,but are shown as a single path in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing. In addition, there may be more than one of each of contentsource 416 and media guidance data source 418, but only one of each isshown in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The differenttypes of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired, contentsource 416 and media guidance data source 418 may be integrated as onesource device. Although communications between sources 416 and 418 withuser equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 are shown as throughcommunications network 414, in some embodiments, sources 416 and 418 maycommunicate directly with user equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 viacommunication paths (not shown) such as those described above inconnection with paths 408, 410, and 412.

Content source 416 may include one or more types of content distributionequipment including a television distribution facility, cable systemheadend, satellite distribution facility, programming sources (e.g.,television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.), intermediatedistribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers, on-demandmedia servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademark owned bythe National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademark owned by theAmerican Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademark owned by theHome Box Office, Inc. Content source 416 may be the originator ofcontent (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcast provider, etc.) ormay not be the originator of content (e.g., an on-demand contentprovider, an Internet provider of content of broadcast programs fordownloading, etc.). Content source 416 may include cable sources,satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internet providers,over-the-top content providers, or other providers of content. Contentsource 416 may also include a remote media server used to storedifferent types of content (including video content selected by a user),in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems andmethods for remote storage of content, and providing remotely storedcontent to user equipment are discussed in greater detail in connectionwith Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,892, issued Jul. 20, 2010, whichis hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Media guidance data source 418 may provide media guidance data, such asthe media guidance data described above. Media guidance application datamay be provided to the user equipment devices using any suitableapproach. In some embodiments, the guidance application may be astand-alone interactive television program guide that receives programguide data via a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed).Program schedule data and other guidance data may be provided to theuser equipment on a television channel sideband, using an in-banddigital signal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any othersuitable data transmission technique. Program schedule data and othermedia guidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analogor digital television channels.

In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source 418may be provided to users' equipment using a client-server approach. Forexample, a user equipment device may pull media guidance data from aserver, or a server may push media guidance data to a user equipmentdevice. In some embodiments, a guidance application client residing onthe user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 418 to obtainguidance data when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of dateor when the user equipment device receives a request from the user toreceive data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment withany suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specifiedperiod of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to arequest from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source 418 mayprovide user equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 the media guidanceapplication itself or software updates for the media guidanceapplication.

Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-aloneapplications implemented on user equipment devices. For example, themedia guidance application may be implemented as software or a set ofexecutable instructions which may be stored in storage 308, and executedby control circuitry 304 of a user equipment device 300. In someembodiments, media guidance applications may be client-serverapplications where only a client application resides on the userequipment device, and server application resides on a remote server. Forexample, media guidance applications may be implemented partially as aclient application on control circuitry 304 of user equipment device 300and partially on a remote server as a server application (e.g., mediaguidance data source 418) running on control circuitry of the remoteserver. When executed by control circuitry of the remote server (such asmedia guidance data source 418), the media guidance application mayinstruct the control circuitry to generate the guidance applicationdisplays and transmit the generated displays to the user equipmentdevices. The server application may instruct the control circuitry ofthe media guidance data source 418 to transmit data for storage on theuser equipment. The client application may instruct control circuitry ofthe receiving user equipment to generate the guidance applicationdisplays.

Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices402, 404, and 406 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT contentdelivery allows Internet-enabled user devices, including any userequipment device described above, to receive content that is transferredover the Internet, including any content described above, in addition tocontent received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content isdelivered via an Internet connection provided by an Internet serviceprovider (ISP), but a third party distributes the content. The ISP maynot be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights, orredistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets providedby the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers includeYOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IPpackets. Youtube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is atrademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu,LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively providemedia guidance data described above. In addition to content and/or mediaguidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute media guidanceapplications (e.g., web-based applications or cloud-based applications),or the content can be displayed by media guidance applications stored onthe user equipment device.

Media guidance system 400 is intended to illustrate a number ofapproaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devicesand sources of content and guidance data may communicate with each otherfor the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. Theembodiments described herein may be applied in any one or a subset ofthese approaches, or in a system employing other approaches fordelivering content and providing media guidance. The following fourapproaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example ofFIG. 4.

In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each otherwithin a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with eachother directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemesdescribed above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similardevice provided on a home network, or via communications network 414.Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate differentuser equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may bedesirable for various media guidance information or settings to becommunicated between the different user equipment devices. For example,it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent media guidanceapplication settings on different user equipment devices within a homenetwork, as described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/179,410, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different types ofuser equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with eachother to transmit content. For example, a user may transmit content fromuser computer equipment to a portable video player or portable musicplayer.

In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment bywhich they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, someusers may have home networks that are accessed by in-home and mobiledevices. Users may control in-home devices via a media guidanceapplication implemented on a remote device. For example, users mayaccess an online media guidance application on a website via a personalcomputer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA orweb-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set various settings (e.g.,recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidanceapplication to control the user's in-home equipment. The online guidemay control the user's equipment directly, or by communicating with amedia guidance application on the user's in-home equipment. Varioussystems and methods for user equipment devices communicating, where theuser equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, isdiscussed in, for example, Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,801, issuedOct. 25, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outsidea home can use their media guidance application to communicate directlywith content source 416 to access content. Specifically, within a home,users of user television equipment 402 and user computer equipment 404may access the media guidance application to navigate among and locatedesirable content. Users may also access the media guidance applicationoutside of the home using wireless user communications devices 406 tonavigate among and locate desirable content.

In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloudcomputing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computingenvironment, various types of computing services for content sharing,storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networkingsites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing andstorage resources, referred to as “the cloud.” For example, the cloudcan include a collection of server computing devices, which may belocated centrally or at distributed locations, that provide cloud-basedservices to various types of users and devices connected via a networksuch as the Internet via communications network 414. These cloudresources may include one or more content sources 416 and one or moremedia guidance data sources 418. In addition or in the alternative, theremote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such asuser television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, and wirelessuser communications device 406. For example, the other user equipmentdevices may provide access to a stored copy of a video or a streamedvideo. In such embodiments, user equipment devices may operate in apeer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server.

The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, contentsharing, or social networking services, among other examples, as well asaccess to any content described above, for user equipment devices.Services can be provided in the cloud through cloud computing serviceproviders, or through other providers of online services. For example,the cloud-based services can include a content storage service, acontent sharing site, a social networking site, or other services viawhich user-sourced content is distributed for viewing by others onconnected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user equipmentdevice to store content to the cloud and to receive content from thecloud rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-storedcontent.

A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders,digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, andhandheld computing devices, to record content. The user can uploadcontent to a content storage service on the cloud either directly, forexample, from user computer equipment 404 or wireless usercommunications device 406 having content capture feature. Alternatively,the user can first transfer the content to a user equipment device, suchas user computer equipment 404. The user equipment device storing thecontent uploads the content to the cloud using a data transmissionservice on communications network 414. In some embodiments, the userequipment device itself is a cloud resource, and other user equipmentdevices can access the content directly from the user equipment deviceon which the user stored the content.

Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, forexample, a web browser, a media guidance application, a desktopapplication, a mobile application, and/or any combination of accessapplications of the same. The user equipment device may be a cloudclient that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or theuser equipment device may have some functionality without access tocloud resources. For example, some applications running on the userequipment device may be cloud applications, i.e., applications deliveredas a service over the Internet, while other applications may be storedand run on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user devicemay receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. Forexample, a user device can stream audio from one cloud resource whiledownloading content from a second cloud resource. Or a user device candownload content from multiple cloud resources for more efficientdownloading. In some embodiments, user equipment devices can use cloudresources for processing operations such as the processing operationsperformed by processing circuitry described in relation to FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is an illustrative representation of a user capturing images ofvarious objects associated with different directions at a firstlocation. FIG. 5 shows a representation of a first location (e.g.,location 500). In FIG. 5, user 508 is currently capturing images ofobject 502, object 504, and object 506. As indicated by compass 510,object 502, object 504, and object 506 are each associated with adifferent direction (e.g., “East,” “North,” and “West,” respectively).

In some embodiments, as a user captures images, videos, audio and/ortextual data (e.g., via content capture component 316 (FIG. 3)), themedia guidance application stores a compass bearing and/or otherdirectional data associated with each of object 502, object 504, andobject 506. For example, a GPS component, accelerometer, compass,gyroscope, etc. incorporated into the content capture device mayindicate the direction that the content capture device faced, when thecontent capture device recorded the media asset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may additionallyrecord other “additional data” associated with the media asset. Asreferred to herein, “additional data” refers to any data that describescharacteristics of and/or circumstances surrounding the creation (e.g.,via content capture component 316 (FIG. 3)) of a media asset. Forexample, additional data may describe the time of day, the date, theseason (e.g., winter, spring, etc.), the content of the media assets(e.g., names of objects in the media asset, descriptions of the contentof the media asset, etc.). For example, the media guidance applicationmay record the time that a particular media asset was captured. Later,when the media guidance application generates a display ofdirection-specific media assets, the media guidance application may alsogenerate a display of time-specific media assets (i.e., media assetsthat were captured/generated/recorded at a time corresponding to thecurrent time).

For example, a media guidance application may receive a user request togenerate at a second location direction-specific media assets that areassociated with a first location and are also associated with aparticular time. For example, a user (e.g., via user input interface 310(FIG. 3)) may request the media guidance application generate a displayof media assets corresponding to Miami Beach at dawn on New Years' Day.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application stores thedirectional data and/or additional data (e.g., as metadata) with thecaptured media asset. Alternatively or additionally, directional dataand/or additional data may be stored in a remote location. The remotelocation may subsequently be accessed by the media guidance applicationas necessary in order to generate a display of media assets according touser criteria (e.g., criteria related to the direction, time, etc. of amedia asset).

FIG. 6 is an illustrative representation of a presentation of images ofvarious objects associated with different directions at a first locationas displayed on display devices associated with the different directionsat a second location. FIG. 6 shows a representation of a second location(e.g., location 600). Location 600 includes multiple display devices.For example, location 600 includes device 602, device 604, and device606, any of which may, in some embodiments, correspond to user equipmentdevices 402, 404, and/or 406 (FIG. 4).

Each of device 602, device 604, and device 606 are associated with adifferent direction respective to user 608. For example, device 602 isassociated with “East,” device 604 is associated with “North,” anddevice 606 is associated with “West.” Furthermore, each of device 602,device 604, and device 606 is currently displaying a direction-specificmedia asset.

For example, in response to a user request, the media guidanceapplication has populated the display screens of each of device 602,device 604, and device 606 with a media asset associated with the samedirection at a different location. For example, device 602 is presentinga media asset of object 502 (FIG. 5) as both device 602 and object 502(FIG. 5) are associated with a direction of “East.” Device 604 ispresenting a media asset of object 504 (FIG. 5) as both device 604 andobject 504 (FIG. 5) are associated with a direction of “North.” Finally,device 606 is presenting a media asset of object 506 (FIG. 5) as bothdevice 606 and object 506 (FIG. 5) and are associated with a directionof “East.”

As shown in FIG. 6, the media guidance application has directed (e.g.,via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)), media assets from a first location(e.g., location 500 (FIG. 5)) to be presented at a second location(e.g., location 600), in which the media assets (e.g., of object 502,object 504, and object 506 (FIG. 5)) corresponding to the directionsassociated with user devices (e.g., device 602, device 604, and device606 (FIG. 6)). Accordingly, the environment of location 500 (FIG. 5) hasbeen recreated at a different location (e.g., location 600).

Additionally or alternatively, the media guidance application maygenerate additional sounds, smells, etc. associated with the firstlocation (e.g., location 500 (FIG. 5)). The media guidance applicationmay also recommend products or content (e.g., food, clothing, etc.)associated with the first location (e.g., location 500 (FIG. 5)) whilethe user is at the second location (e.g., location 600).

Additionally or alternatively, the media guidance application may modifythe media assets presented on device 602, device 604, and/or device 606based on additional data associated with the media assets. For example,as the time of day changes (e.g., as nightfall approaches), the mediaguidance application may generate a display of media assetscorresponding to object 502, object 504, and object 506 (FIG. 5) atnight (e.g., either adjusted for time zone differences or not).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may have presenteddirection-specific media assets on device 602, device 604, and/or device606 in response to determining that device 602, device 604, and/ordevice 606 where with a particular proximity as discussed above.Alternatively, the media guidance application may have received one ormore user inputs (e.g., via user input interface 310 (FIG. 3)) selectingeach of device 602, device 604, and/or device 606. For example, themedia guidance application may receive a user input indicating that aparticular room of a house should represent a first location (e.g.,location 500 (FIG. 5)), while a different room of a house represents adifferent location.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine thedirections associated with each of device 602, device 604, and/or device606 via one or more of the methods discussed above. For example, themedia guidance application may receive a user input indicating theposition and direction of each of device 602, device 604, or device 606.The media guidance application may have, additionally or alternatively,used GPS data associated with a display screen on each of device 602,device 604, or device 606 to determine the direction each of device 602,device 604, or device 606 is facing. The media guidance application mayalso determine a direction that each of device 602, device 604, ordevice 606 is facing in response to receiving accelerometer informationfor each of device 602, device 604, and/or device 606, as discussedbelow in relation to FIG. 7.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may also provideother media content associated with a first location currently recreatedat a second location. For example, in addition to generating a displayof media assets from a particular location, the media guidanceapplication may advertise products or service associated with theparticular location. For example, in response to recreating a scene ofRome, Italy, the media guidance application may generate anadvertisement for Italian food. In another example, in response todetermining that the user is recreating a scene from Paris, France, themedia guidance application recommend French movies for presentation onone or more display devices.

The media guidance application may also provide numerous options fromviewing media assets associated with a particular location. For example,a user may input (e.g., via user input interface 310 (FIG. 3)) one ormore criteria associated with the display of media asset at the secondlocation. For example, in addition to selecting a time and/or place torecreate at the second location, the media guidance application mayallow a user to present particular media assets associated with thatlocation and/or choose to not present other media assets associated withthat location. For example, the media guidance application may allow auser to manual select or skip media assets that the user may not wish toappear (e.g., duplicate media assets, media assets with poor quality,etc.). Additionally or alternatively, the media guidance application mayreceive criteria (e.g., filtering available media assets) or other rulesgoverning whether or not a media asset is presented.

FIG. 7 is an illustrative representation of a presentation of a seriesof images of various objects associated with different directions at afirst location as a display device is associated with differentdirections at a second location. FIG. 7 shows location 700. In location700, user 708 is changing the direction associated with his/her userdevice. For example, in some embodiments, user 708 may move a userdevice (e.g., user device 300 (FIG. 3)) in a 360-degree motion in orderto view a piecemeal representation of a panoramic view of a differentlocation.

For example, FIG. 7 represents user 708 moving a user device (e.g., userdevice 300 (FIG. 3)) about a first location (e.g., location 700) andviewing a presentation of direction-specific media assets associatedwith a second location (e.g., location 500 (FIG. 5)). As indicated bycompass 710, position 702 is associated with the direction of “East.”Position 704 is associated with the direction of “North,” and position706 is associated with a position of “West.”

As the user device is moved through the various directions, the mediaasset present on the user device changes as well to reflect the currentdirection associated with the user device. For example, as the mediaguidance application (e.g., via an accelerometer, gyroscope, compass,etc. incorporated into and/or accessible by user device 300 (FIG. 3))detects that a user is changing the direction associated with the userdevice, the media guidance application may, in response, generate adisplay of a media asset associated with the current direction.

For example, at position 702, a user device (e.g., user device 300 (FIG.3)) is initially associated with a direction of “East.” Accordingly, themedia guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3))has generated a display of a media asset associated with the directionof “East” (e.g., a media asset of object 502 (FIG. 5)). Subsequently,the user device is moved to position 704. At position 704, a user device(e.g., user device 300 (FIG. 3)) is associated with a direction of“North.” Accordingly, the media guidance application (e.g., via controlcircuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) has generated a display of a media assetassociated with the direction of “North” (e.g., a media asset of object504 (FIG. 5)). The user device is then moved to position 706. Atposition 706, a user device (e.g., user device 300 (FIG. 3)) isassociated with a direction of “West.” Accordingly, the media guidanceapplication (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) has generated adisplay of a media asset associated with the direction of “West” (e.g.,a media asset of object 506 (FIG. 5)).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may also respond toother directional movements. For example, in response to aiming a usedevice higher (e.g., towards a ceiling), the media guidance applicationmay generate a display of a media asset corresponding to a higherdirection (e.g., a media asset of the sky at location 500 (FIG. 5)).

It should be noted that as the user device is moved from position 702 toposition 704, and to position 706, the media guidance application mayselect frames, each frame associated with a direction, of a video,including frames associated with multiple directions. For example, themedia guidance application may determine a direction associated witheach frame of the video and select only frames (even if out of sequence)that correspond to a particular direction for display on a displaydevice (e.g., user device 602 (FIG. 6)).

In addition, the media guidance application may generate differentframes (e.g., associated with different directions) of a media asset forsimultaneous display on different display devices. For example, a singlemedia asset (e.g., a video shot while user 508 (FIG. 5) turns 180degrees from “East” to “West”) may include a frame featuring object 502(FIG. 5), object 504 (FIG. 5), and object 506 (FIG. 5). In response todetermining that there are multiple display devices (e.g., device 602(FIG. 6), device 604 (FIG. 6), and device 606 (FIG. 6)) in proximity toa user (e.g., user 708), the media guidance application may selectframes from the single media asset corresponding to the directionassociated with each of the multiple devices and display the framessimultaneously to a user (e.g., as shown in FIG. 6)).

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in generating adisplay of a direction-specific media asset. It should be noted thatprocess 800 or any step thereof, could be performed on, or provided by,any of the devices shown in FIGS. 3-4. For example, process 800 may beexecuted by control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3) as instructed by a mediaguidance application implemented on user equipment 402, 404, and/or 406(FIG. 4) in order to produce a display of a direction-specific mediaasset (e.g., as discussed in relation to FIGS. 5-7) in response to auser request (e.g., received via user input interface 310 (FIG. 3)). Inaddition, one or more steps of process 800 may be incorporated into orcombined with one or more steps of process 900 (FIG. 9).

At step 802, the media guidance application receives a first mediaasset, captured by a content capture device, associated with a firstlocation. For example, a content capture device (e.g., user device 300(FIG. 3) incorporating content capture component 316 (FIG. 3)) maycapture an image of an object (e.g., object 502 (FIG. 5)).

For example, the media asset may be associated with an object (e.g.,object 502 (FIG. 5)) that a user (e.g., user 508 (FIG. 5)) recordedwhile on a vacation. The media asset may be stored locally (e.g., atstorage 308 (FIG. 3)) or may be stored remotely (e.g., at media contentsource 416 (FIG. 4), media guidance data source 418 (FIG. 4), and/or anydevice accessible via communications network 414 (FIG. 4)).

At step 804, the media guidance application may determine a firstdirection at the first location that the content capture device facedwhen capturing the first media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may receive data (e.g., via an internal accelerometer)indicating a direction that the content capture device faced when themedia asset was recorded.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive dataindicating a direction that the content capture device faced when themedia asset was recorded. For example, directional data may be storedwith and/or incorporated into the media asset (e.g., as metadata).Additionally or alternatively, data indicating a direction that thecontent capture device faced when the media asset was recorded with thecontent capture device may be stored in a database locally (e.g., atstorage 308 (FIG. 3)) or remotely (e.g., at media content source 416(FIG. 4), media guidance data source 418 (FIG. 4), and/or any deviceaccessible via communications network 414 (FIG. 4)).

In such embodiments, the media guidance application may access thisdatabase as necessary to generate displays of direction-specific mediaassets. For example, a database may include all available media assets.For each media asset, the database may include a field that indicatesthe location a content capture device was when the media asset wasrecorded, the location of the media asset (e.g., as determine by GPSdata), and/or any additional data for the media asset.

At step 806, the media guidance application receives a user inputrequesting to generate a display of media assets associated with thefirst location at a second location. For example, the media guidanceapplication may receive (e.g., via user input interface 310 (FIG. 3)) alocation, direction, and/or additional data as criteria for media assetsthe user wishes to be displayed. Alternatively or additionally, themedia guidance application may automatically select one or morecriterion (e.g., a direction) based on the position of one or moredisplay devices.

For example, after returning from a vacation, a user (e.g., user 608(FIG. 6)) may wish to recreate the vistas experience on a previousvacation. In response, the user may request the media guidanceapplication generate one or more direction-specific media assets on oneor more display devices (e.g., device 602, device 604, and/or device 606(FIG. 6)) at the current location (e.g., location 600 (FIG. 6)) of theuser.

At step 808, the media guidance application detects a first displaydevice associated with a first direction at the second location. Forexample, the media guidance application may receive (e.g., via I/O path302 (FIG. 3)) data indicating available display devices for presentingmedia assets. For example, the media guidance application may receiveGPS data, user profile settings, etc. associated with both the positionand the way each display device at a location (e.g., a home of theuser). Based on this information, the media guidance application (e.g.,via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) may request one or moredirection-specific media assets that correspond to the direction of thedisplay devices.

For example, the media guidance application may determine at aparticular location (e.g., location 600 (FIG. 6)) that there are threedisplay devices (e.g., device 602, device 604, and device 606 (FIG. 6)).Additionally, the media guidance application may determine a directionassociated with each of the three devices. In response to determiningthe direction associated with each of the three display devices, themedia guidance application may request (e.g., via control circuitry 304(FIG. 3)) one or more media assets (e.g., from storage 308 (FIG. 3)and/or media content source 416 (FIG. 4)) corresponding to the requestof the user (e.g., to generate media assets from a particular location).

For example, in order to select media assets associated with auser-selected location (e.g., location 500 (FIG. 5)), the media guidanceapplication may cross-reference the user-selected location (e.g.,location 500 (FIG. 5) with the database. In response, the database mayoutput all media assets associated with the location.

In addition, for each media asset, the database may include a field thatindicates the direction a content capture device faced when the mediaasset was recorded. In order to select media assets associated with aparticular direction (e.g., “North”), the media guidance application maycross-reference a direction (e.g., “North”) with the database. Inresponse, the database may output all media assets associated with thedirection.

The database may also include, for each media asset, one or more fieldsthat indicate the additional data associated with the media asset. Inorder to select media assets associated with user-selected additionaldata (e.g., “7:00 PM”), the media guidance application maycross-reference the user-selected additional data (e.g., “7:00 PM”) withthe database. In response, the database may output all media assetsassociated with the user-selected additional data.

At step 808, the media guidance application generates a display of thefirst media asset on the first display device in response to determiningthat the first direction at the first location corresponds to the firstdirection at the second location. For example, in response todetermining that a media asset (e.g., a media asset of object 502 (FIG.5)) corresponds to a first location (e.g., location 500 (FIG. 5)) and adirection (e.g., “East”) associated with a display device (e.g., device602 (FIG. 6)) at a second location (e.g., location 600 (FIG. 6)), themedia guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3))generates a display of the media asset on the display (e.g., display 312(FIG. 3)) of a display device (e.g., device 602 (FIG. 6)).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may also generate adisplay of direction-specific media assets on a single mosaic display inwhich the direction associated with each media asset is indicated by theplacement of the media asset in the mosaic display. For example, if amedia asset is associated with a direction of “North,” the mediaguidance application (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) maygenerate a display (e.g., on display 312 (FIG. 3)) of the media asset atthe top of the display screen (e.g., of user equipment device 402, 404,and/or 406 (FIG. 4)). In another example, if a media asset is associatedwith a direction of “South,” the media guidance application (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) may generate a display (e.g., on display312 (FIG. 3)) of the media asset at the bottom of the display screen(e.g., of user equipment device 402, 404, and/or 406 (FIG. 4)).

In some embodiments, the placement of the media asset may also depend onthe orientation of the display device upon which the media asset isgenerated. For example, if a user device (e.g., user device 300 (FIG.3)) is orientated perpendicular to the plane of the Earth (e.g., hangingon a wall of a room), the media guidance application may generate adisplay of a media asset that corresponds to the direction of thedisplay device (e.g., as discussed in FIG. 8 above). Alternatively oradditionally, if the media guidance application (e.g., via anaccelerometer incorporated into and/or accessible by a device upon whichthe media guidance application is implemented) determines that thedevice is parallel to the plane of the Earth (e.g., parallel to thefloor of a room), the media guidance application may generate a mosaicdisplay of media assets in which media assets associated with thedirection of “North” are displayed at the top of a display screen, mediaassets associated with the direction of “South” are displayed at thebottom of a display screen, etc.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 8 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 8 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should be noted that anyof the devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 3-4 could beused to perform one of more of the steps in FIG. 8.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in generating adisplay of a media asset that is based on direction informationassociated with the specific media asset. It should be noted thatprocess 800 or any step thereof, could be performed on, or provided by,any of the devices shown in FIGS. 3-4. For example, process 900 may beexecuted by control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3) as instructed by a mediaguidance application implemented on user equipment 402, 404, and/or 406(FIG. 4) in order to produce a display of a direction-specific mediaasset (e.g., as discussed in relation to FIGS. 5-7) in response to auser request (e.g., received via user input interface 310 (FIG. 3)). Inaddition, one or more steps of process 900 may be incorporated into orcombined with one or more steps of process 800 (FIG. 9).

At step 902, the media guidance application receives a request topresent a direction-specific media asset on a user device. For example,the media guidance application (e.g., via user input interface 310 (FIG.3)) receives a request to generate a media asset for display on adisplay device (e.g., user equipment device 402, 404, and/or 406 (FIG.4)), in which the content capture device that recorded the media assetis associated with the same direction as the display device. Forexample, the media guidance application may receive a request togenerate a display of a media asset at the current location of a user(e.g., location 600 (FIG. 6)), in which the media asset captured at asecond location (e.g., location 500 (FIG. 5)) corresponds to the samedirection (e.g., “North”) as a display device (e.g., device 604 (FIG.6)) at the current location of the user (e.g., user 608 (FIG. 6)).

At step 904, the media guidance application retrieves alldirection-specific media assets. For example, the media guidanceapplication (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) may access one ormore databases (e.g., storage 308 (FIG. 3) of a content capture device)and/or third party databases (e.g., media content source 416 (FIG. 4)and/or any other location accessible via communications network 414(FIG. 4)).

At step 906, the media guidance application retrieves adirection-specific media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication (e.g., via processing circuitry 306 (FIG. 3)) may processeach of the available media assets in order to select a media assetcorresponding to the particular criteria of the user. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may perform multipleiterations of process 900. Additionally or alternatively, process 900may be performed by inputting the criteria of the user into a database(e.g., a look-up table database) and receiving an output of suitablemedia assets.

At step 908, the media guidance application determines whether or notthe direction-specific media assets correspond to the direction of theuser device. For example, if the media guidance application determines(e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)), that the available displaydevice (e.g., user equipment device 402, 404, and/or 406 (FIG. 4))corresponds to a particular direction, the media guidance applicationmay filter through available media assets until a media assetcorresponding to the particular direction is found.

If the media guidance application determines (e.g., via processingcircuitry 306 (FIG. 3)) that the direction-specific media assetcorresponds to the direction of the user device (e.g., user equipmentdevice 402, 404, and/or 406 (FIG. 4)), the media guidance applicationproceeds to step 910. If the media guidance application determines thatthe direction-specific media asset does not correspond to the directionof the user device, the media guidance application returns to step 906and select a different direction-specific media asset.

At step 910, the media guidance application determines whether or notthe user requested any additional criteria. For example, the mediaguidance application may have received (via user input interface 310(FIG. 3)) instructions to generate a display of media assets thatcorresponds to the current time at the location of the user (e.g.,location 600 (FIG. 6)). In response, the media guidance application mayfurther filter available media asset based on the additional criteria.

If the media guidance application determines that there are additionalcriteria, the media guidance application proceeds to step 912. If themedia guidance application determines that there are no additionalcriteria, the media guidance application proceeds to step 914. At step912, the media guidance application determines whether or not thedirection-specific media asset corresponds to the additional criteria.For example, the media guidance application may determine (e.g., viaprocessing circuitry 306 (FIG. 3)) whether or not additional data (e.g.,indicative of a date on which the media asset was created) correspondsthe additional criteria (e.g., requesting that a media asset created onthe current date a year prior be displayed).

If the media guidance application determines that the direction-specificmedia asset does not correspond to the additional criteria, the mediaguidance application returns to step 906 and retrieves a differentdirection-specific media asset. If the media guidance applicationdetermines that the direction-specific media asset does correspond tothe additional criteria, the media guidance application proceeds to step914.

At step 914, the media guidance application presents adirection-specific media asset on the user device. For example, inresponse to determining (e.g., via processing circuitry 306 (FIG. 3))that the direction of a media asset (e.g., a media asset of object 504(FIG. 5)) corresponds to the direction of a display device (e.g., device604 (FIG. 6)), the media guidance application generates a display of themedia asset on the display device.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 9 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 9 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should be noted that anyof the devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 3-4 could beused to perform one of more of the steps in FIG. 9.

The above-described embodiments of the present disclosure are presentedfor purposes of illustration and not of limitation, and the presentdisclosure is limited only by the claims which follow. Furthermore, itshould be noted that the features and limitations described in any oneembodiment may be applied to any other embodiment herein, and flowchartsor examples relating to one embodiment may be combined with any otherembodiment in a suitable manner, done in different orders, or done inparallel. In addition, the systems and methods described herein may beperformed in real-time. It should also be noted, the systems and/ormethods described above may be applied to, or used in accordance with,other systems and/or methods.

1. A method of selecting media content for display on user devices, themethod comprising: receiving a first media asset, captured by a contentcapture device, associated with a first location; determining a firstdirection at the first location that the content capture device facedwhen capturing the first media asset; receiving a user input requestingto generate a display of media assets associated with the first locationat a second location; detecting a first display device associated with afirst direction at the second location; and generating a display of thefirst media asset on the first display device in response to determiningthat the first direction at the first location corresponds to the firstdirection at the second location.
 2. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: determining a second direction at the first location thatthe content capture device faced when capturing a second media asset; inresponse to the user input, detecting a second display device associatedwith a second direction at the second location; and generating a displayof the second media asset on the second display device, simultaneouslywith the display of the first media asset on the first display device,in response to determining that the second direction at the firstlocation corresponds to the second direction at the second location. 3.The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving data associated withthe first media asset, wherein the data indicates that the contentcapture device faced the first direction at the first location whencapturing the first media asset.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein thecontent capture device includes a compass used to determine the firstdirection at the first location.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein thefirst direction at the first location and the first direction at thesecond location both correspond to a frame of reference that isstationary relative to Earth's magnetic poles.
 6. The method of claim 1,further comprising determining the first display device is associatedwith the first direction at the second location based on data associatedwith an accelerometer in the first display device.
 7. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising determining the first display device isassociated with the first direction at the second location based on dataassociated with a user setting for the first display device.
 8. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: determining a first time at whichthe content capture device captured the first media asset at the firstlocation; and generating a display of the first media asset on the firstdisplay device in response to determining that a current timecorresponds to the first time.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein thefirst media asset is a video, and wherein determining the firstdirection at the first location that the content capture device facedwhen capturing the first media asset further comprises determining adirection that the content capture device faced when capturing eachframe of the first media asset.
 10. The method of claim 1, whereingenerating the display of the first media asset on the first displaydevice in response to determining that the first direction at the firstlocation corresponds to the first direction at the second locationfurther comprises selecting a frame of the first media asset for displayon the first display device based on determining that the framecorresponds to the first direction at the first location.
 11. A systemof selecting media content for display on user devices, the systemcomprising control circuitry configured to: receive a first media asset,captured by a content capture device, associated with a first location;determine a first direction at the first location that the contentcapture device faced when capturing the first media asset; receive auser input requesting to generate a display of media assets associatedwith the first location at a second location; detect a first displaydevice associated with a first direction at the second location; andgenerate a display of the first media asset on the first display devicein response to determining that the first direction at the firstlocation corresponds to the first direction at the second location. 12.The system of claim 11, wherein the control circuitry is furtherconfigured to: determine a second direction at the first location thatthe content capture device faced when capturing a second media asset; inresponse to the user input, detect a second display device associatedwith a second direction at the second location; and generate a displayof the second media asset on the second display device, simultaneouslywith the display of the first media asset on the first display device,in response to determining that the second direction at the firstlocation corresponds to the second direction at the second location. 13.The system of claim 11, wherein the control circuitry is furtherconfigured to receive data associated with the first media asset,wherein the data indicates that the content capture device faced thefirst direction at the first location when capturing the first mediaasset.
 14. The system of claim 11, wherein the content capture deviceincludes a compass used to determine the first direction at the firstlocation.
 15. The system of claim 11, wherein the first direction at thefirst location and the first direction at the second location bothcorrespond to a frame of reference that is stationary relative toEarth's magnetic poles.
 16. The system of claim 11, wherein the controlcircuitry is further configured to determine the first display device isassociated with the first direction at the second location based on dataassociated with an accelerometer in the first display device.
 17. Thesystem of claim 11, wherein the control circuitry is further configuredto determine the first display device is associated with the firstdirection at the second location based on data associated with a usersetting for the first display device.
 18. The system of claim 11,wherein the control circuitry is further configured to: determine afirst time at which the content capture device captured the first mediaasset at the first location; and generate a display of the first mediaasset on the first display device in response to determining that acurrent time corresponds to the first time.
 19. The system of claim 11,wherein the first media asset is a video, and wherein the controlcircuitry configured to determine the first direction at the firstlocation that the content capture device faced when capturing the firstmedia asset is further configured to determine a direction that thecontent capture device faced when capturing each frame of the firstmedia asset.
 20. The system of claim 11, wherein the control circuitryconfigured to generate the display of the first media asset on the firstdisplay device in response to determining that the first direction atthe first location corresponds to the first direction at the secondlocation is further configured to select a frame of the first mediaasset for display on the first display device based on determining thatthe frame corresponds to the first direction at the first location.21-40. (canceled)